Norm Dicks inducted into Wild Salmon Hall of Fame

From childhood, U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks was destined to become an
advocate for salmon and ultimately a champion for the entire Puget
Sound ecosystem, according to recent comments from his family and
friends.

Most people know that Norm — whose home lies in southern Hood
Canal — will leave office at the end of this year. Recognizing his
efforts on behalf of salmon, the Pacific Northwest Salmon Center
recently named him to its “Wild Salmon Hall of Fame.”

Neil Werner, executive director of the salmon center, said Norm
embodies all the criteria for hall of fame inductees, such as a
passion to restore wild salmon, a willingness to share knowledge
and much success in making things happen. Listing the criteria, he
said, is like describing Norm Dicks himself.

I won’t list all the accomplishments that Neil cited during an
induction ceremony two weeks ago, but they included Norm’s
leadership in obtaining congressional funding for a variety of
programs to restore salmon in Puget Sound, to heal the Puget Sound
watershed (including federal lands) and to increase our
understanding of how the ecosystem works.

As a result, salmon have regained access to 900 miles of stream
habitat, including the nearly pristine watershed above two dams on
the Elwha River.

“We will see the benefits of what he has done for an awfully
long time, if not in perpetuity,” Neil said.

Ryan Dicks, Norm’s younger son, joked that his father may have
loved salmon fishing his entire life, but that did not make him a
hall-of-fame fisherman, at least if one judges by other family
members. Norm never received any awards from the Tyee Club, Ryan
said, but Norm’s grandmother, Hilda, and even his wife, Suzie, were
named “fishermen of the year.”

“He did catch two fish at once,” Ryan noted, going on to explain
that his dad played one salmon so long that a ling cod came along
and swallowed the salmon while it was still on the line.

Norm’s passion for fishing cannot be denied, however, Ryan said.
On his first election day in 1976, he went fishing rather than
waiting around for vote totals. He caught a 14-pound “silver”
(coho) that day before the votes were counted.

Ryan next introduced Frank Haw, an avid fisherman, longtime
fisheries biologist and former deputy director of the state’s
fisheries agency. Haw is known as the “father of blackmouth
fishing” for a program that created resident chinook. As Ryan Dicks
tells it, Frank did not need to buy herring for his salmon-fishing
trips; he simply went out and caught a bunch of herring with a jig,
then used them for bait.

Ryan said Frank taught Norm and his family much of what they
know about salmon fishing.

Haw stepped up to the front of the crowd and said he was honored
to speak at the Wild Salmon Hall of Fame presentation.

“Norm Dicks is the undisputed champion of salmon recovery in
Washington state,” Haw said, then proceeded to talk about the
“holistic approach” involving four H’s: habitat, hatcheries,
harvest and hydro.

Habitat: Norm was among the first to recognize the level of work
needed in the rivers to replace culverts that block salmon
migration, to reconnect side channels where salmon can find refuge
and to remove logging roads that deliver sediment into the
streams.

Hatcheries: Norm recognized the importance of reforming
hatcheries to protect wild fish. He helped fund a panel of
scientists to make suggestions for improvements at each hatchery in
the state.

Harvest: Nobody has had the “wisdom and courage” to tackle
harvest reform the way Norm has, according to Haw. He battled
tribes that opposed the marking of hatchery fish and wrote
requirements for marking into federal law. Now, it is possible to
distinguish wild from hatchery salmon, which allows sport fishermen
to release the wild ones. New methods are being developed for
releasing wild fish during commercial operations as well.

Hydro: Removal of two dams on the Elwha River is one important
measure of Norm’s success. Without him, Haw said, there would have
been no chance to remove the dams, no hope of restoring the
legendary chinook that once populated the river.

Tim Thompson, a longtime aide to Dicks, talked about the
political obstacles to ecosystem restoration.

“Norm approached natural resource issues without fear,” he said.
“It is not easy for elected officials to care about natural
resources issues. It is hard to go to the timber industry and say,
‘You need to do more.’”

Thompson said Norm “invested his political capital” to bring
timber industry folks together with tribal and environmental
officials. Major timber companies voluntary developed habitat
conservation plans to address a variety of endangered and
threatened species.

Norm promoted new programs to restore habitat over time,
including a national Legacy Roads and Trails Program in the
national forests and a Northwest salmon recovery fund to help the
states with their efforts.

Thompson said others will need to step up to continue the effort
that Dicks started and continued throughout his 34 years in
office.

After receiving the hall of fame award — a statue of a salmon —
Dicks spoke to the group. He said the effort to restore salmon grew
out of an understanding that not enough was being done if the
salmon were to avoid extinction.

“You have to have a scientific basis for what you’re doing,”
Dicks said. “That’s how the Hatchery Scientific Review Group came
about. We wanted them to look at all the hatcheries in the Pacific
Northwest and see how they can lead to (salmon) recovery.”

When it became clear that a program was needed to identify
individual hatchery salmon to protect the wild fish, Norm put that
requirement into a Department of Interior appropriations bill along
with money for the marking program.

“I learned that from Sen. Magnuson,” explained Dicks, who had
worked for Washington’s longtime powerful senator, Warren Magnuson,
who died in 1989.

Dicks said he is pleased with the massive restoration conducted
at the Nisqually River estuary, the Skokomish River estuary and now
the Union River estuary.

When the regional salmon enhancement groups needed money for
restoration, Dicks stepped up to help. Each received $100,000, he
said, but the Hood Canal Salmon Enhancement Group was given an
extra $200,000 — “because it’s on Hood Canal.”

When budget “earmarks” or “directed spending” fell out of favor,
Dicks said he approached the director of Interior to keep the
salmon-recovery program working through next year.

“He said it (the program) was working well,” Norm said, “and
that he will put in into the budget for the Fish and Wildlife
Service.”

Norm has not said what he plans to do in retirement. I doubt
that he really knows yet, given that the pressure cooker won’t be
turned off for another two months.

“As I leave the scene, I will still be around,” he told the
audience of salmon supporters. “I will work with you in all of your
plans. This has been a big part of my career. We still have to
restore these salmon, these wild fish. With people like you in this
room, we will get there.”